Donomark

Fightin' 5 #40, The Peacemaker #1 (1967), Peacemaker #1-#4 (1988): Read the first appearance, first of his brief ongoing and the Post-Crisis DC Comics revamp of the character The Peacemaker. Started out as a backup feature in the series Fightin' 5, Christopher Smith is a peaceful diplomat and "pacifist" who simultaneously dons a costume and array of gadgets and weapons whenever he deems there's no choice but to engage in violence with those who would do violence unto others. The artwork is reminiscent of Charlton era Ditko, but less good. The character himself is a screaming hypocrite, and therefore unlikable, although I find it interesting that he's explicitly an older character with Reed Richards hair. Then I read the 80s revamp after DC acquired the Charlton characters. This series dives into the maniacal hypocrisies of the character, maybe a bit too far. "He'll fight for peace, so much so that he's willing to kill for it!" was the mantra of the Charlton original (with "fight" in place of "kill"), and with this version he's regularly haunted by the spirit of his nazi father. This series knows that the character they're working with is insane, but it still posits him as a hero and doesn't do too much to interrogate his actions beyond a requisite "He's crazy! Anyway..." tone.

Rocky IV: Showed this to Harry, generally my favorite Rocky film because it's so...what it is. The 90 minute runtime really made itself apparent this time around, with the severe padding during slow Rocky and Adrian scenes and let's see *counts on hand* FOUR montages and two musical numbers. Yeah there really isn't a lot of strict plot going on here. But the actors are so damn good. Apollo Creed get's wasted for the sake of the final fight, and he's really out of character blabbing vagaries about "THEM", but Carl Weathers is so damn likable you only sort of notice. Dolph Lundgren gives a perfect performance, underplaying what Harry postulated might've been an inspiration for Bane later on. My favorite character is Duke, who's in every Rocky-titled film and gives the best performance of the movie. I really wasn't around for the Cold War so all the cloak and dagger about surveillance reminded me of the Living Daylights. I still don't really connect with that sentiment of East vs West, but over 30 years later, it's still a mega-fun movie to watch because it's so shamelessly 80s and OTT. Also it has a robot. It's basically in the Kung Fury universe. Batman: Soul of the Dragon: Straight up 70s era Denny O'Neil who at the time was obsessed with Jame Bond in his stories, as well as a solid adaptation of the Richard Dragon Kung-Fu comic series. As others have said, this really is not a Batman movie at all. He only suits up twice and doesn't carry to POV for the audience. That's a good thing, after dozens of Bat-Films, I like that the filmmakers knowingly Trojan-Horsed this to be a Richard Dragon story. It's not brilliant, there's a little padding with the flashbacks and the animation was a bit choppy at times. But the three mains from the Kung Fu comic are excellent, with this being the best Shiva portrayal since Young Justice season 3. I also liked how it ended like a 70s movie by throwing caution to the wind and just going crazy. It's weirdly un-intense for an "R" rated film though. Even Bruce Timm was surprised as they didn't intend for it to be. Dark Knight Returns was more violent than this.

So Close (2002): A Cory Yuen directed film about a pair of Hitwomen assassins and the genius cop trying to take them down. This is the same director of the Hey and Actor! classic, "Yes, Madam". It's more serious than that, but the action is completely bonkers. I loved it. Shu Qi is a goddess. Lionheart: Van Damne classic which as it winded down made me remember I probably saw the last act of this on TV once. Perfectly fine. Standard early 90s action fare that's pretty by the numbers. Fight scenes aren't spectacular, but the different arenas were pretty cool, like a Squash room or an empty pool.

I saw When Harry met Sally a few days ago. I enjoyed it alright, but Harry's smarm in his younger days was an obstacle for me to get past for a long time into the movie. I also kinda wish the initial two points from the past lasted a little longer.

T2 is a classic, I'd even say important film, while the Goodfellas is possibly the most obnoxious gangster movie in existence. Irritating at every turn.

WW84: Thus far my favorite DCEU film, or at least the one I've had the easiest time enjoying. It's decidedly nicer and warmer, to an extent that it's pretty kid friendly. There's not a huge ton of violence, and Wonder Woman's just a friendly superhero (there's no staring down at people begging for her help like a robot or anything). I can see why people might not like it because the plot is pretty out there and doesn't hold up to a ton of scrutiny, but this is a fun movie that doesn't need an airtight script to be enjoyable. It's not for everyone, but it's not bad either. Although I wish there was more of Cheetah. Soul: Goddammit, this made me cry half a dozen times throughout. Between the brilliant Reznor and Ross/Jon Batiste score and the very idea of the story, easily my favorite Pixar/Disney movie since The Incredibles. One of the company's finest efforts. Go see this film.

The current run's gone deep into Matt's classically catholic guilt with his actions leading to the death of a guy, so he wants to set a public example by facing legal repercussions in public. His ID has been majorly secret again since the Charles Soule run, with only Foggy knowing and everyone else forgetting, save for #25's special guest. Batman/Catwoman #1: I can't make heads or tails of this issues. It's one thing for Tom King to subsume Mask of the Phantasm into continuity. I'd rather he not, but whatever, who cares. I wish he would elaborate more on it rather than just obliquely sum it up in like two panels. But the actual sequence of events are zig-zagged across time. WTF is happening? One moment, Bruce is telling Andrea that Alfred is dead, then in that very same panel Alfred walks into the room. Oh, it's a flashback. Now it's a flash forward. Now Bruce is dead and Selina is 70 years old. I know that references one of King's annuals, but it's been a year since King's run ended, so all of this is hard to follow, hard to understand and hard to enjoy. Batman #104 (2020): This on the other hand was solid. It always does my heart good to see the new 52 designs jettisoned, so the flashback with Batman and Robin in their classic costumes was great, and Tynion's writing has been consistent from the get-go. The Mirror is an interesting enough character, Stephanie Brown calling Oracle "Batgirl Prime" was great, and the ending cliffhanger was classic comic book stuff. IDK if Tynion's run will go down as one of the all time greats, but it's so much less indulgent than King and Snyder's run. It feels like classic, un-pretentious Batman. Miles Morales Spider-Man #21 (2020): I kinda thought this conclusion was hastened with a lot of placeholder dialogue and two-dimensional characterization, so I'm more interested in the lower key stories coming up. It's interesting to me how Miles and his Uncle Aaron's relationship has improved since Into the Spider-Verse. I like how it's far more loving, but I remember this guy being an utter bastard and Miles' nemesis back when they first premiered.

The Other History of the DC Universe by John Ridley. Chronicling Black Lightning's perspective on his canonical career from the 70s to the early 90s. This is the best DC book I've read in many years. I can't even begin to think of anything that touches it in the last ten. Certainly not anything Batman related. It strikes a tone of storytelling maturity and insight that recalls late 80s DC Comics, where maturity meant sophistication and not just wanton violence. Certainly the best Black Label comic by far as well. Highly recommended.

Oh my God, I've fully known about Slott's buffoonish procrastination habits for several years. Shit was legendary during his ASM run. Christos Gage is a better writer than he is, and he filled in every three or four issues it seemed. Slott literally had to have his Twitter password changed by the Marvel editors because he was so distracted. So a lot of this is me going "Yup, that's totes true."

Oh sure, that's been going on ever since we talked about Ian Levine here on the boards. But I have seen a lot of female fans be kind of meh at season 11, and really enjoy season 12, which I did as well.

That's interesting.

Amazing Spider-Man #854: HOLY FUCKING SHIT (will return to elaborate further, just had to get that out there atm)

Having missed out on this season, I'm pleasantly surprised to hear it so positively reviewed by you guys. My understanding was that this was an uneventful, bland first run for Chibnall, and in that SDCC panel I recorded last year, the majority consensus of the panel of fans roundly disliked him as showrunner. This is the first I've heard where the opinion has bucked the trend.

Oh, absolutely. No question. On QnoA we did a commentary for Death Wish 3, and Harry went in not remembering that the ludicrously young attorney who Kersey hooks up with is immediately blown up in a car, then never mentioned again. That, and the needless rape/murder of Marina Sirtis. It's flagrant toxic male fantasy nonsense, there's zero argument to be had. That said, I think the tone differences in the first three films do give it a range of watchability. The first one has more going for it in that Kersey's a far more flawed character. The second one's just exploitation trash. The third one is so asleep at the wheel that its pernicious politics lack the collective bite of the previous films, so even with all the ardent misogyny I really can't take it seriously.

I've only seen the first 3 Death Wish films, and they're all racist AF. I should check out 4 and 5 to see if the franchise can go the distance.

I used to bleep out all the heavy swears on my DBZ podcast years back, because while the show was clearly for adult millennials, the franchise has a tween audience and I felt it was the nobler thing to do. I even bleeped out the single use of the word "gypped" in one instance because I found out in between recording and editing that it's an anti-Roma slur.

Ooh! This Election Year, I fell hardcore into 538's podcast, generally hosted by Galen Druke and infrequently including Nate Silver himself, who's provided humor by not GAF about people's thoughts on how polls work. It's pretty funny to hear him swear about people being idiots. The Ezra Klein Show also has great discussions with thoughtful people. I first heard him last year when Contrapoints was featured, but his episode this year with Stuart Stevens I found to be captivating. I've subscribed ever since.

Aw, is that the basis for this DangerDOOM music video?

https://screenrant.com/doctor-who-45th-doctor-silence-library-colin-salmon/amp/?fbclid=IwAR0CPAUH2XDMblbNMSMVqptEEqe4-XykzCjQllxSdv4l63ArzqYMRV5ICN4 Colin Salmon as the Doctor? IIRC this was discussed as being a cool idea back when Dan and Mike covered that two-parter on BOIT.

The story was ultimately pointless. If it didn't get the Doomsday Clock treatment and came out back when this was first made a mystery of, treated like an actual mystery with clues down the line, and not the random one-off that it was, it might have more weight. I enjoyed the third issue, but it was Johns just doing *his* Joker story, which doesn't compare to any of the classics. I didn't hate it but it's impossible to love aside from Fabok's art.

That was a terrific discussion. I'm younger than you guys, so both my engagement with Wizard and my awareness of its cons were far more minimized. I never stuck to it like a die-hard, but it was cool to have a monthly magazine about comic books. I definitely remember when it folded and getting the last issue. I remember the lameass gag panels, and the misogyny didn't surprise me, but the depths of it I wasn't aware of. Awesome episode and happy 15th anniversary.

Batman: Death in the Family: A "Choose your own Adventure" meets Marvel's "What IF?" series revolving around the Under the Red Hood movie. I bought this off iTunes, so my "choices" weren't realized as much as me watching each different segment one at a time. I have to say I was a little worried going into this with the "R" rating, thinking it'd be another "too adult for youuu" wannabe Batman story. There's a couple of moments of extreme violence, but they're used sparingly (both involving Black Mask). This was great. The wrap-a-round of the original Under the Hood movie is dovetailed by scenes coming right before the flashback events of the movie and after the events of the very end of Under the Hood. It's a 30 minute recap narrated by Batman, but I dug that as you get inside his head during key moments, like Nightwing's involvement in the movie. But the new stories positing what if Jason survived differently were terrific. I can't spoil too much as they're very surprise laden, but we do see more of the Bat-Family, and Jason's psychology is explored more directly. Whereas Under the Red Hood truly is a Batman story with him as the protagonist, this is Jason Todd's movie, and I think fans of the character will love how much of a mental workout the character gets in each segment, covering potentials that see him both as more of a traditional good guy, and more of a psychopath. I really recommend this to fans of Under the Red Hood, and Batman fans. The comic book references delighted me, and at no point did I think the different scenarios didn't make any sense with how they went down. Like Batman meets the Ninja Turtles last year, this was the animated surprise that I really came away loving.

I started to read Red Dragon a couple of years back after watching Manhunter, and it's well written but soooo super-clinical in its writing that I fell off about a third of the way through. Maybe I'll pick it back up some day, but I certainly am not feeling it atm.

NOICE. Love that game.

Have you NOT seen Commando?